Ballade (forme fixe)

Se la face ay pale,
La cause est amer,
C'est la principale
Et tant m'est amer
  Amer, qu'en la mer
  Me voudroye voir;
  Or, scet bien de voir
  La belle a qui suis
  Que nul bien avoir
    Sans elle ne puis.

Se ay pesante male
De dueil a porter,
Ceste amour est male
Pour moy de porter;
  Car soy deporter
  Ne veult devouloir,
  Fors qu'a son vouloir
  Obeisse, et puis
  Qu'elle a tel pouvoir,
    Sans elle ne puis.

C'est la plus reale
Qu'on puist regarder,
De s'amour leiale
Ne me puis guarder,
  Fol sui de agarder
  Ne faire devoir
  D'amours recevoir
  Fors d'elle, je cuij;
  Se ne veil douloir,
    Sans elle ne puis.

Guillaume Dufay (listen^ⓘ)

The ballade (/bəˈlɑːd/; French: [balad]; not to be confused with the ballad) is a form of medieval and Renaissance French poetry as well as the corresponding musical chanson form. It was one of the three formes fixes (the other two were the rondeau and the virelai) and one of the verse forms in France most commonly set to music between the late 13th and the 15th centuries.

The formes fixes were standard forms in French-texted song of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The ballade is usually in three stanzas, each ending with a refrain (a repeated segment of text and music).^[1]

The ballade as a verse form typically consists of three eight-line stanzas, each with a consistent metre and a particular rhyme scheme. The last line in the stanza is a refrain. The stanzas are often followed by a four-line concluding stanza (an envoi) usually addressed to a prince. The rhyme scheme is therefore usually ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC, where the capital "C" is a refrain.

The many different rhyming words that are needed (the 'b' rhyme needs at least fourteen words) makes the form more difficult for English than for French poets. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in the form. It was revived in the 19th century by English-language poets including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne. Other notable English-language ballade writers are Andrew Lang, Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton (at Wikisource). A humorous example is Wendy Cope's 'Proverbial Ballade'.

^ J.P.E. Harper-Scott and Jim Samson (2009). An introduction to music studies. cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[1] J.P.E. Harper-Scott and Jim Samson (2009). An introduction to music studies. cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[1]

Ballade (forme fixe)

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